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7.5 debrief

The round-up of the campaign travels of the major parties was more of the same. Good to see Gillard make an appearance. Tip is up to his usual tricks, but I think Rudd needs to at least adjust the “here comes the negative” message a bit – the counter-ad was quite good, but repetitiveness is Rudd’s biggest liability in some ways. Howard certainly still looks grumpy, though – the “grow up” message seemed close to a tantrum.

I thought Bob Brown was really solid tonight. Kerry seemed to want him to say that he and the Greens would be obstructionist, extremist roadblocks in the Senate, but Bob put across a clear and coherent position. Given that Rudd’s “economic conservatism” and hands-on approach to controlling the party message moves them so far into the centre, combined with the growing role of climate change in the public debate, it seems to me that there’s an opportunity for the Greens to win over some centre-Left voters. It’s also great to see a third-party candidate getting a fair shake at exposure early in the campaign. And I now want Kevin to say no to the debate – let’s have some genuine disagreement across the policy spectrum.